Wednesday, August 31, 2016

The Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT) will play two main events in September on back to back weekends with the first happening this weekend, when the 2016 Paola Longoria Experience will be held in Longoria’s hometown of San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Longoria is the LPRT’s #1 ranked player, but she missed the first tournament of the season due to media commitments at the 2016 Summer Olympics, so for the first time since March 2015 someone other than Longoria is trying to win back to back LPRT events.

This weekend Frédérique Lambert, LPRT #3, will be trying to win back to back events, as she’s coming off the first win of her career in early August in Atlanta. To do that Lambert will likely have to defeat Samantha Salas in the quarterfinals, Rhonda Rajsich in the semi-finals and then Longoria in the final.

Notable in their absences are LPRT #4 Maria Jose Vargas and LPRT #8 Sofia Rascon. Vargas also didn’t play in Atlanta.

They’ll also play doubles in San Luis Potosi, where Longoria and Salas are the top seeds with Lambert and Michelle Key as second seeds. Two of the other interesting teams are Adrienne Haynes and Rhonda Rajsich, who are seeded fourth and a junior team of Gabriela Martinez and Monserrat Mejia, the eighth seeds.

You can watch this weekend’s action live via the LPRT LiveStream channel. Play begins Friday morning in the Round of 32 with the Round of 16 beginning Friday afternoon at 3 PM.

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Frédérique Lambert won the first Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT) event of her career Sunday, as she defeated Alexandra Herrera in the final of the Atlanta Championships in Lilburn, Georgia, 11-6, 11-3, 11-9. Lambert, the LPRT's 4th ranked player, was playing in her fourth career final, but second consecutive final, while Herrera, LPRT #8, was in her first final.

The final was a battle of two former World Junior Girls U18 Champions. Lambert won that title in 2011, and Herrera in 2014. Thus, they are two of the good young players on the LPRT.

Herrera did win the Women's Open doubles title in Lilburn, teaming up with Jordan Cooperrider to defeat Regina and Maritza Franco, 15-4, 15-9. The Women's Open singles title went to Cristina Amaya, who beat Susana Acosta in the final, 15-10, 12-15, 11-4.

In the semi-finals, Amaya had a forfeit win against Carla Muñoz, while Acosta defeated Cooperrider, 15-13, 15-8.

The LPRT will be back in action next month, when they'll play back to back tournaments. First, they'll be in San Luis Potosi, Mexico for the Paola Longoria Experience, September 2-4, and then in Greenville, South Carolina for the 2016 Sweet Caroline Open, September 9-11, 2016.

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Second seed Frédérique Lambert and 5th seed Alexandra Herrera will face of in the final of the Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT) Atlanta Championships in Lilburn, Georgia on Sunday. Lambert was expected to be there, although she didn't have an easy time of it on Saturday, as she had to battle back from 2-1 down to defeated 7th seed Cristina Amaya, 13-11, 9-11, 6-11, 11-2, 11-3, in the quarterfinals, and then went down a game in the semi-final against 3rd seed Jessica Parrilla, but again battled back to win in four games, 7-11, 11-3, 11-7, 11-5.

However, Herrera is a surprise finalist, as this is the first time she has reached an LPRT final. Herrera got there by first upsetting 4th seed Sofia Rascon, 11-6, 11-3, 11-7, in the quarterfinals, and then beating Carla Muñoz, 10-12, 11-9, 11-5, 11-3, in the semi-finals. Muñoz was the big upset winner in the quarters, as she knocked off top seed Rhonda Rajsich, 11-7, 11-9, 11-7.

The final will be Sunday at noon eastern. You can watch the action via the LPRT LiveStream channel, which also has the archive of the matches that have happened so far this weekend and for many of the recent LPRT events in recent season.

Friday, August 12, 2016

A couple of small upsets in the Round of 32 at the Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT) Atlanta Championships in Lilburn, Georgia, but nothing so far in the Round of 16. The closest match happened in the 32s, as Regina Franco, seeded 18th, came back from two games down to defeat Jordan Cooperrider, 8-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-4, 14-12. But Franco then lost to 2nd seed Frédérique Lambert in the 16s, 11-3, 11-3, 11-9.

The Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT) begins its 2016-17 season today with the LPRT Atlanta Championships in Lilburn, Georgia. There will be some differences this season compared to last season. One is that Paola Longoria, the LPRT's #1 player, will not win all the events, as she isn't in Georgia this weekend. Longoria is at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro doing media work for a Mexican television station.

Another difference this season is that the LPRT has an agreement with Penn Racquetballs to use their balls in LPRT competition after several seasons of using Ektelon racquetballs. Initially, the LPRT will play with the Pro Penn Green ball, but there are plans to develop another racquetball for the LPRT.

Rhonda Rajsich is the top seed in Georgia this weekend, and Frédérique Lambert is the second seed, as LPRT #3 Maria Jose Vargas is also absent this weekend. Jessica Parrilla is 3rd seed, Sofia Rascon 4th and Alexandra Herrera 5th seed.

There are other good players in the draw, including Cristina Amaya, veteran left-hander Susana Acosta, and American junior Jordan Cooperrider, but one have to think that Rajsich and Lambert will meet in the final, which would be a toss up.

The Rounds of 32 and 16 will be played Friday with the quarterfinals and semi-finals on Saturday and final on Sunday at noon eastern. You can watch the action via the LPRT LiveStream channel.

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

The Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT) begins its 2016-17 season this weekend, so it's a good time to review what happened last season. 2015-16 was a season dominated by Paola Longoria, who was undefeated, as she won all 11 LPRT Tier 1 or Grand Slam events. It looks like she'll have a chance to win more than that in 2016-17, as there are 8 events on the schedule prior to Christmas, and presumably more than three after Christmas.

Longoria going undefeated was not too surprising, as she had done so in three previous seasons: 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14. But what was somewhat surprising was that Rhonda Rajsich finished #2, as Maria Jose Vargas was #2 in 2014-15, and then at 22, looked to be on the rise compared to veteran Rajsich, who's 14 years Vargas's elder.

Thus, Rajsich had a renaissance last season, which made her results at the World Championships last summer puzzling. She lost in the Round of 16 to Gabriela Martinez, and needed tie-breakers to win her two group stage matches. So, it's difficult to know what to expect from Rajsich this season.

Frédérique Lambert was the player on the rise the second half of last season, as she was in two finals and two semi-finals in the last five events. Moreover, Lambert was up 2-1 on Longoria in the last event of season, although Longoria did win that match. Lambert finished 4th last season, behind Rajsich and Vargas, but could well finish higher this season.

Of note, only one USA player was in the top 10 at season's end. That was Rajsich at #2. That's the fewest USA players in the top 10 ever. Ten seasons ago eight of the top 10 were USA players, and even in 2014-15 there were four.

So, some of the questions for the coming season are how many events will Longoria win? Who will be the #2 player behind Longoria? And how many USA players will be in the top 10?

2015-16 Statistical Abstract

There were 248 LPRT matches last season, which was down from 279 in 2014-15, and 296 in 2013-14, but about the same as 2012-13, when there were 249 matches that season.

There was a slight decrease in the number of different players making the quarterfinals or better at a LPRT event last season, as 16 players did so, compared to 20 in 2014-15, 22 in 2013-14, and 19 in 2012-13, and 13 in 2011-12. But some of those players did so for the first time, including Carla Muñoz, Adriana Riveros, Maria Renee Rodriguez and Masiel Rivera.

Friday, August 5, 2016

The Racquetball Blog recently celebrated its 8 year anniversary. Yay us! During that period the most popular article is the piece on racquetball and the Olympics that we wrote 8 years ago during the Beijing games. As the Summer Olympics begin today in Rio de Janeiro, it's time to revisit the topic, especially as some things have changed.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has changed the rules for including sports in the games, so the host city can nominate some sports to be included in the games when that city plays host. This will begin with the 2020 games in Tokyo. Earlier this week, it was announced that the five sports to be included in Tokyo will be baseball/softball, karate, sports climbing, skateboarding and surfing.

The inclusion of these sports is a result of "the IOC’s strategic roadmap in 2014," which gave "Organising Committees the flexibility to propose new sports for their edition of the Games" with the intention of putting "even more focus on innovation, flexibility and youth in the development Olympic programme" (quotes from IOC press release). Also, these "additional sports in Tokyo will not … be binding on future host cities." Thus, these five sports may or may not be included in games past 2020.

This Organizing Committee selection process is a way that racquetball could be included in a Summer Olympic Games if the games were held in a racquetball friendly country. Racquetball friendly countries are mainly in the Americas, and given how things seem to be playing out in Brazil, it's unlikely that another South American country will be chosen in the near future. That leaves North American countries, so the USA, Mexico or Canada. But a USA host city is the best possibility for racquetball's inclusion in the games.

There has been no decision on where the 2024 Summer Olympics will be, but the five potential sites includes a USA city: Los Angeles, as well as Paris, Rome, Budapest, and Hamburg, Germany. If Los Angeles won the bid, then racquetball could be a potential Organizing Committee sport selection. If one of the other cities wins the bid, then racquetball would be unlikely to be included on the program, although Hamburg is one of the best sites for racquetball in Europe.

Helping get racquetball into the games program in Los Angeles would be the strength of USA racquetball. The USA would be likely win multiple medals in an Olympic racquetball competition, although it's is not "the dominant racquetball country" that we said it was eight years ago. Mexico has become the USA's strongest racquetball rival, and arguably may have replaced the USA as the dominant racquetball nation.

Racquetball continues to be a small sport, so getting it included in an Olympic Games will be difficult, regardless of where those games are held. But it's the dream of all small sports is to be big sports, and being a big sport means being in the Olympics. Helping this cause would be to grow the game, and do so in more countries.

But despite its small size, we think it's more likely that racquetball will in the Olympics now, because of these Organizing Committee selections, so we are more optimistic than we were of its inclusion in future Olympic Games than we were eight years ago.